there's a fork in the road (open)

[reluctants]

⭐ Who: Illya and you!
⭐ When: July 1st, before the thunderstorm kicks in!
⭐ Where: Out around Yumemigaoka
⭐ What: Illya's waffling about being an active Dreamer. Maybe help give her advice?


(1. tanabata - in the store)

[ Though the stores may only have started stocking the supplies for Tanabata today, apparently someone already noticed them being there pretty early on. Illya is pretty into the idea of Tanabata, after all, and she does want to make a wish..

.. which is why you may find the girl in the store, staring at the coloured paper and the bamboo. Something seems a little off about her though, like Illya is deep in thought, despite.. just staring at what are basically just crafting supplies.

Whatever she's thinking about, she doesn't seem to be paying too much attention to her surroundings. She turns without looking, bumping right into you when you're either standing next to her or trying to pass her - though she does have the decency to immediately look embarrassed after briefly startling. ]

Oh, sorry..! Um, you-- did you also want to get some stuff for Tanabata..?

[ Is she trying to make some awkward small talk to make up for the bumping-into-you thing? Absolutely. Or maybe she's trying to distract from how out of it she seemed a moment ago. ]

(2. hesitation - near the dreamer union headquarters)

[ Later that day Illya can be seen somewhere else entirely. In fact, maybe you have actually seen her there before, if you go near or into the Dreamer Union headquarters often enough. It hasn't been for too long yet, but for the past few days this girl definitely has been hanging out near the building - seeming to walk closer to it, only to shake her head and walk back.. after which the pattern repeats all over again.

The same thing is happening today. Seems a little weird, huh? Maybe you'd like to go ask her what's up, regardless of whether you know or don't know the girl acting so oddly. ]

Comments

[reluctants]

[ There's an important point in what Lisa touches on here, isn't there. Just maybe it'll turn out to be fun, she says, a possible outcome that Illya herself hadn't even imagined yet. She was so worried about going into the Dream Sphere in the first place and probably failing that she didn't even think about the fact that maybe it could go well. Maybe she could do well. Maybe she could actually help.

It still feels like a foreign possibility, but at least Lisa has planted the seeds of it, somewhere in the far back of Illya's mind..

Still, the girl doesn't mention it. There's something else her mind is focusing on, after all, the more she thinks over the other's words.

After a moment or two, it has Illya moving. Stepping forward, arms reaching out, and the next moment the younger girl is actually hugging Lisa. Cheeks burn with worry about being too forward, but it just-- It felt right in the moment. ]

Thank you. [ She mumbles, half-muffled against the other girl. ] You know, just.. for agreeing. I was really worried you didn't want to come with me..

[ For a myriad of potential reasons Illya could think of, honestly. But they don't matter as much in light of the fact that Lisa did agree to come with her now.

It's such a relief. ]

[traceofeffort]

[Her nerves are fraying. What Illya is asking of her and what Lisa is agreeing to do are not quite the same, and she hasn't processed that fine distinction yet. So she's starting to panic, trying to work out what she's going to do, debating if she should ask someone for advice before the two of them go in, but she can't show that or she's going to lose what credibility she has with this poor girl-

-and then there are arms around her, and slowly, her panic ebbs away. She doesn't miss the words out of the girl's mouth, and Lisa starts to recognize that she's overthinking this, too. For all she'd been worried about Illya pushing herself too hard, clearly she hasn't internalized her own advice, and it's... a little humbling, and a little galling. Still, she's not going to leave Illya hanging, and her arms come around her friend in turn, tightly but not too tightly. Her tone, when she manages to speak, is quiet but warm, affection coming through clearly.]

Silly girl... of course I was going to come if you asked. You couldn't pay me to stay away. I... [She shakes her head, not trusting herself to laugh in case it comes out as a sob.] Thank you, Illya-chan. Thank you for trusting me.

[A small part of her is glad Illya remembered their promise from before, because boy, she was not in the headspace for it, and she appreciates the hell out of Illya's forwardness now.]